Facebook User Arrested For a Poke 394
nk497 writes "A woman in Tennessee has been arrested for poking someone over Facebook. Sharon Jackson had been banned by courts from 'telephoning, contacting or otherwise communicating' with the apparent poke recipient, but just couldn't hold back from clicking the 'poke' button. She now faces a sentence of up to a year in prison."
Re:No communication is no communication. (Score:2, Interesting)
Curious question, does anyone else when downloading software that asks for an email address, give the company their own email address back to them? i.e. go to apple.com to download quicktime, they ask for a email address, and you give support@apple.com? Just wondering if I'm the only one that likes returning the spam to sender so directly...
thought you could only poke a friend ? (Score:3, Interesting)
I thought you could only poke a friend, which would mean they both agreed to add each other and thus allow interaction. If the facebook friendship was initiated before the initial court order wouldn't that require that it be ended by both parties and the act of keeping it would mean there was an agreement between both parties ? That's sorta like getting a restraining order and continuing to live with the person you had teh order againts.
Re:No communication is no communication. (Score:5, Interesting)
I thought the story should have been "Moron That Got Restraining Order Kept Woman as an Unblocked Person on Facebook" myself. Seriously if you go through the hassle of a restraining order, perhaps you should add them to your block list.
Re: burden of proof / implications on free speech (Score:4, Interesting)
I can certainly imagine what _should_ probably happen (second person informs the first person, _then_ if contact does not cease, the first person has violated the restraining order), but I'm finding it difficult to match that to a real life situation, so I can't imagine such a situation is already handled.
Though.. I guess a possible real life analogue may be something like the first person writing a letter that appears in the local newspaper, with the second person writing a letter to the newspaper in response to that, going back and forth using the newspaper as the medium instead of
Re:why I'm not on facebook (Score:2, Interesting)
No kidding!
I've seen several D&D groups destroyed by the single asshole who a friend brought along because they felt sorry and figured, "All s/he needs is a supportive group of other geeks where s/he can gain a little self-esteem."
And then the needy little vampire proceeds to piss everybody off, make the evening painful and totally un-fun, and one by one, the real people you wanted to play with get fed up and move on. The worst is when more assholes show up and infest your group, and the next thing you know, your light and energizing game night has become a dark drain upon your life.
Basic rule of gaming: Never, NEVER play with people who you don't like and wouldn't choose to spend time with normally. Seems straight forward enough, but the problem is very common. --People forget that it's a D&D game, not a therapy session for creeps. If you are foolish enough to get sucked into vampiric relationships with monster people, my heart goes out to you; we've all been there, but it's your job to figure it out and leave the leach at the door and not inflict your monster on everybody else.
The difficult part is that while many people are geeks by choice, others are geeks by default. There are a lot of cool people to be found at sci-fi conventions, but then there are the troll people who don't bathe, talk too loud, have no social graces and who hide from life in D&D land. No thank-you. If they are genuinely troubled souls trying their best to improve, well that's great, but they can do it elsewhere. One of the most memorable rock-bottom moments before I finally cashed in my chips and abandoned a D&D group, (I was the last of the real people to go), was when the creep in question began getting off on torturing NPC's in prolonged sessions, Reservoir Dogs style.
I felt sick for a whole day afterward and I was furious that a weakling little turd like him had single-handedly managed over the course of several months to destroy something which had been awesome, bright and powerful. I'm still angry with myself for not cutting him off in the beginning when it would have been easy and my gut had been telling me to do so. Never again.
-FL
It's Called Baiting . . . (Score:1, Interesting)
First in order for the woman to get arrested the the plaintiff had to notify the authorities that the defendant made contact with them regardless of form. In this case it was a poke on Facebook. More than likely the plaintiff purposely left the defendant as a friend on Facebook hoping that they would initiate some form of contact that could be used as proof. Now here's the "genuine" scary part a plaintiff does not have to have proof that the defendant made contact. All the defendant has to do is call the authorities and say the defendant made contact regardless if they really did or not. The authorities are obligated to find and arrest the defendant and hold them pending an investigation. If after the investigation no proof could be conjured up the defendant would be set free. Never the less it's a real mess for the defendant they should plan on having an extended stay at the ole' CJ. Now because the plaintiff has proof of contact it will be at a judges discretion as to whether or not they want to enforce the penalties for breaking a an NCO (no contact order)
BTW NCO's are different beasts altogether than a restraining order. No Contact Orders are only imposed by the courts and restraining orders are brought about by the plaintiff making a complaint. In this case as one can determine from the wording of the article
"Jackson had been banned by courts from 'telephoning, contacting or otherwise communicating' with the apparent poke recipient"
Keywords: banned by courts from 'telephoning, contacting or otherwise communicating
This indicates that it was an NCO imposed by the court to protect the plaintiff regardless of whether the plaintiff wanted it imposed or not. It was issued the same day the defendant was arraigned in court and would stay in effect all the way to the trial if there was to be one. My guess is that the defendant pleaded not guilty and a hearing date was set hence the reason for the NCO. The kicker is that if a defendant violates an NCO it is a separate offense altogether from the original complaint and it's treated as a felony with up to a $1,000 dollar fine and/or up to one year in jail.
Nine times out of ten NCO's imposed by the courts are overkill and unnecessary. However the reasons for an NCO being placed at all stem from incidents where a tragedy took place. For instance two years ago in the state of Idaho they had a beheading where a young woman's boyfriend was released from jail stalked her, kidnapped her, and cut her head off.
So the next time you feel like having a fight with your girlfriend, boyfriend, wife, husband or significant other, even a just a friend and someone decides to involve the authorities better make sure it's being done for the right reason and not because you just want the other party to spend a night in jail. Depending on what jurisdiction one is in at the time rest assured that whomever is carted off to jail wins all kinds of neat prizes. An orange jumsuit, a blanket, a pillow, tooth brush, shampoo kit and a brand new NCO smile your the next contestant on you have no more life.
If all of that is not enough to scare you "and this could happen to anyone and I mean anyone" think about how it would feel to have a document hanging over your head where at any given moment the plaintiff could drop a dime on you all because they are having a bad day. Oh yes "the plaintiff" for better or for worse now owns your behind and depending on what kind of person they are is going to determine how the rest of your life is going to turn out. Prosecuting attorneys LOVE NCO's love, love, love them because all they care about is the "win" and having an NCO in place means they have total control over the outcome. If you find yourself ever in a situation like this batten down the hatches and find yourself a reputable attorney preferably one that is a former district attorney turned defense attorney that is going to be your ONLY course for salvation. And for all purposes rendered make no contact what so ever with the plaintiff not even so much as a poke on Facebook otherwise consider your goose cooked.